Cohousing-L Mailing List: Credit / Debit Spending for Operating Expenses -

[audrey (audrey]

At winslow cohousing, we don't have any credit or debit cards that belong to 
the community.  Individual members pay for some things and get reimbursed by 
submitting an expense request and receipt to the treasurer, that has been 
initialed by the cluster/committee whose budget the expense belongs to.  Larger 
expenses are often invoiced to the community, and they also have to be 
initialed by the cluster/committee chair as well as the treasurer before they 
are paid.

Each committee has a budget and we give them quarterly reports so they know how 
far spent they are with respect to their budget.   The treasurer also watches 
for unusual or unbudgeted expenses.

for expenses that are above budget (we've had maintenance expenses over 
budget),  that are essential, we have an operating reserve that allows us to 
pay them, and then if at the end of the year that category is over budget, we 
collect more the following year to bring it back in line.  the board can 
authorize budget changes up to 10%, over that we bring it to the entire 
community.

--audrey watson
winslow cohousing
bainbridge island.
> 
> Specifically we would like to know
> 
> 1) How does your community use credit cards and debit cards to pay for
>    community expenses and what controls do you have in place for those
>    expenditures?
>    1a-  Who is authorized to use your community credit card or debit card?
>    1b-  What policies or authorization procedures are in place for use of
>         these cards?
>    1c-  Are your books audited and if so by whom and how frequently?
> 
> 
> 2) What budgeting controls do you have in place for operating expenditures?
> 
>    2a-  Is every operating expenditure checked to see that it is within
>         budget? If so, who does that?
>    2b-  If an expenditure would exceed budget but is deemed legitimate or
> necessary, what override or
>         exception procedures are used?
>    2c-  If a requested expenditure would exceed budget but is deemed not 
>         essential, what denial or refusal procedure is used? Who issues the
> refusal?
> 
> 
> Please limit your responses to only operating budget and operating
> expenditures and not to Replacement Reserve spending. 
> 
> 
> 
> Douglas Larson,
> Songaia Cohousing,
> Bothell, Washington
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> End of Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 105, Issue 12
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